1687, l’année où les corsaires algériens firent leur apparition en mer du Nord

Abstract

In June 1687, an Algerian sailor and four European prisoners met in the North Sea: a French clergyman, two German brothers and the captain of the Oranjeboom. The sailor, Mahamat, was on board one of the six privateers which, under the command of Admiral Canary, had sailed north through the Channel in search of booty. The pastor, Brassard, and the two Wolfgang brothers were passengers on a ship sailing from London to Rotterdam. The skipper of the Oranjeboom, Paulsen, came from Norway. At the end of that year, all five were in prison. The four Europeans in Algiers, the Algerian in France, in Toulon. Their captivity was not permanent. Some time later, they were all able to return home. This article deals with the incursion of Algerian privateers into the North Sea and the vicissitudes of these privateers and their victims.